Restart. Tear it down and do it right. Sc 150 build

[d0ughb0y]

Ok, I know it's been a while but life has been busy. But that's the past and now it's time to get this thing rolling. Got the top and bottom wood on the stand. Drilled the six holes in the sides and got the bottom holes that came with this all plugged up. Set the glass on the stand. Put neoprene down under and that was a fiasco. My advice would be to glue that down to the top otherwise the glass will mess it up every time you move it. I didn't​ glue it down I choose to mess with for an extra hour or two instead.

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what color and brand stain did you use on the plywood? I like the color.

 

[rlhanks]

It's melamine pressboard with a cherry veneer. It's got a hard cover that resist some water. Easy and looks good, especially since 90% is covered.

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[d0ughb0y]

ok, thanks.
I am currently building a plywood stand and want to stain it to that exact color.
All my furniture around the house are exactly like that color in your picture. Where did you get it from? I can't find it in home depot website. I might just use that material instead.

how hard was it to remove the overflow?
I got a used 50 cube cadlights, and overflow box is the same as SCA build. acrylic outside with glass inside. how are you going to plug the holes from the original overflow?

 

[rlhanks]

I have some thick glass pieces from other tanks that I bought and tore down instead of giving them away or selling them. I took a piece and cut out three holes the same size so I had round pieces that I could silicone into the empty holes, then after that dries I took a rectangular piece and siliconed that directly over the top of the three blank holes, I'll add pictures later of the process. Many of the large tanks have pieces glued in the bottom for extra strength, I'm sure that is done on the thinner glass tanks, this one has 1/2" glass so it wasn't done at the factory. You can't be too safe with sealing up potential leaks on the bottom of the tank.

The wood was bought at a plywood shop, they sell mostly to contractors who build and sell cabinetry. They are open to the public, they have a selection of everything from marine grade to all kinds of veneers. The melamine is fairly flat and comes in a huge variety of colors and patterns, since it is either in the bottom of a closed box or under the glass tank I thought it was perfect for what I was doing. If I had to, the worst case scenario would have been to get a sheet from Home Depot but that was limited to only white. I would check Menards as they have more variety of things but I rarely shop there out of convenience.

 

[rlhanks]

Cutting the holes for the plugs for the bottom holes. Silicone them in and tomorrow I'll cover them with a piece of glass for extra protection.

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[rlhanks]

The outside overflow glass is getting cut. Using the glass saw for custom fit. Tomorrow I'll drill the bottom for the plumbing. Then start​ the install on the side of the tank.

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[rlhanks]

Whoa!! It's been six months since I last posted on this. Wow, I am sorry for anyone following to not have posted since the end of May.

Well, since I last posted I had just broke down my DIY tank and system. I was setting up my new tank in the location that my old system was running. I moved my healthy live stock into my attached garage in an area that was pretty safe from the elements. In the mean time I started working on setting up the new system as best as I could. From my experiences I knew what I wanted and was going to do everything right that I could.

Everything was going as planned except it was taking far longer to do anything than I wanted because of my work schedule(GM skilled trades working six and seven days) and my family obligations. Also, I never felt rushed, so I was taking my time and just going along at nice slow paced so I could keep everything in check, so it would come out perfect(or as best as I could). That is when disaster struck. Spring came and went and the summer warm weather hit us late May, early June like it always does. Never thought anything of it. l had the tank on auto pilot with the auto feeder on, going in and checking every few days or so. Enjoying the nice warm weather. Early June we had a warm spell of mid 90's and we finally turned on the A/C when we couldn't bear the heat anymore and that is when I realized that there was going to be a problem. Like any of us, our tanks are in our living room, where we see them every day, we more than likely have climate control where we warm it in the winter and cool it in the summer. Never really a temp swing that great. But in my garage that week, the temp climbed to upper 80's without me even knowing it, and with that so did the water temp. I found that every swimming creature had died. A couple of fish I had for three/four years(red mandarin). The ones that made it through all my inexperienced days of keeping a glass box of salty water and fancy lights. That wasn't a pretty sight. Lucky enough all all the inverts made it, and all the coral that I had except for a piece or two.

So I moved what I had left back into the house into the bottom of the stand of the display tank.

Since the summer has come and gone, I have just been tinkering around with what I have doing some things here and there. But starting in October I started back up on it.

Let's continue.....

 

[rlhanks]

This tank is going to have a closed loop with four different output ports, two up high in the corners of the back wall and two in front of the rock work coming out the base. I drilled three holes in the back glass for the closed loop, the one in the center has been plumbed straight down into the substrate where it is teed off to the front corners. This was all done right on the glass bottom and later buried in the gravel/sand. The plumbing in the back was painted dark blue so it blends in to the black background. Will post pictures of what it looks like now later. I have a PanWorld pump that will run the closed loop. Idea for the closed loop is to eliminate having three, four, five power heads in the tank. This system will have one pump hopefully doing the same thing.

The tank sits in the corner of my living room up against the wall. The right side of the tank is up against the wall that divides the house and the garage. Under the tank there is going to be holes drilled in that wall that leads to the garage. There I can bring in RO/DI water and drain out water from water changes, so no more dripping buckets of water from the kitchen or out to the toilet. Also the the main power for the entire system can be brought in from a dedicated 220v circuit.

I have the overflow system glue on and figured out. Essentially, I made a small aquarium out of 3/8 glass and attached it to the side of the tank up against the garage wall. Tank has three 1_1/2 ports through the side wall to the overflow box. I put in two 1" and two 3/4" bulkheads. Two for the overflow, one for the emergency and the fourth for the closed loop. Valves on three of the four, emergency I will just use a plug to control the flow. Valves on each of the closed loops, later I want to add an Oceans Motion to the closed loop system, going to have to find one used or DIY one, they're not cheap brand new.

I'll post pictures of the progress

 

[rlhanks]

The overflow that was added to the right side.

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[rlhanks]

The overflow that was added to the right side.

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That's a small PanWorld pump for the closed loop in the back.

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[rlhanks]

It's up and running. Sort of depressing because of the losses the move has taken and having to start over. But still nice to get the display tank running. I have nothing but time to make up for what we've lost.

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[rlhanks]

Starfire glass is impressive to say the least. Wife kept saying how clean and clear it looks.


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[rlhanks]

Black Friday Kessil's are temporarily on.

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[rlhanks]

The closed loop Plumbing buried in the substrate to give some much needed flow at the base of the rock. Two nozzles down low and two up high on the back wall. 3" of sand/gravel mix on top.

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[rlhanks]

The last system I used about 2" of fine sand from Marcos Rocks. I had ordered a package that included sand and dry rock. It worked out nice, I personally like the look of the very fine sand but, if there was any sort of turbulence, it would throw clouds of sand everywhere, eventually wearing down to the bottom. So, I cleaned up the old sand the best I could and laid it as base. I don't believe it covered enough depth for a deep sand bed so I made a decision to cap the sand with a coarse substrate from DrFosters and Smith. The look is ok, I prefer the look of the sand but with the two opposing Maxspect Gyre pumps going full blast, no more clouds. That trade off is well worth it since the goal here on this system is to have all the necessary items to make this work. Flow and lights is priority here. With the two Gyre pumps, the closed loop and the penductors, there is some movement going on in there and I am quite happy with that part so the trade off is worth it.

 

[rlhanks]

Brown Algae bloom has ruined the look of the new substrate base. Everything that faces the lights has a fresh coating of brown. Hopefully I'll clean that up this weekend. The few fish that are in there are really looking good, I'm sure they are quite happy with their new home and surrounding. More room to swim than they have ever had.

As of now
yellow tang
six line wrasse
red manderin
scooter blenny
two clowns

Placed an order with NYAquatics, found them through a different feed from a different site. Original thread was about getting a gem tang and someone had said that they had several. I had to check that claim out, found that they had purple tangs for $69 so I had to get one, something that I have always wanted. Also ordered a powder blue and a hoard of Anthias.

way too much for shipping but the bottom line was still a great deal. Let you know how that works when they arrive.

 

[rlhanks]

Added a couple fish I bought from Nyaquatics. My now goto for online fish. I'm shocked at what I got for how little. First, purple tang for $69 is easily half what everyone else wants. The powder blue was $49 which is cheaper than most but this guy is close to 4" most for that price is the 2" size. Male anthias is pretty large for $20 three females $13/each is a typical sale price. The angel was $20, typical sale price for that. The only "con" is free shipping is only to states that touch NY. This package cost $80 to ship, still, total cost for everything with shipping is still a great deal.

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[rlhanks]

This frozen food feeder is brilliant. I've been using mine for over a year. Highly recommend. Just drop frozen chunk in and as it tumbles it drops off the food. Takes a bit to set up.

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